H.A. Noureddin Addis
Aka Harold K.P. Addis, Harold Ahmed Noureddin Addis, H.K. Addis, Ahmed Noureddin, Noureddin Addis
Né Harold Kenneth Peebles Addis
Author, Tradesman, and Grocer
Born August 6, 1884, Chesterhill, Ohio
Died December 16, 1958, Los Angeles, California
Marguerite Lynch Addis
Née Marguerite Theresa Lynch Ovens
Author and Librarian
Born October 11, 1880, Kennington, London, England
Died April 16, 1948, Los Angeles, California
Harold Ahmed Noureddin Addis sported a very Muslim-sounding name, despite the fact that he was born the blond-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned son of an Ohio farmer. He came into the world as Harold Kenneth Peebles Addis in Chesterhill, a small town on the fringes of Appalachia, and matriculated at Ohio State University. On the day before his twenty-first birthday, Addis left the United States for Europe. A few months later he applied for a passport in Paris so that he might travel to Turkey. According to an autobiographical sketch that appeared in The Overland Monthly in 1916 (below), Addis "resided in Constantinople" and "[w]as closely associated with some of the leading members of the Committee of Union and Progress of the Young Turk Party prior to the revolution of July, 1908." Recently married, Addis returned stateside in early 1907. Although he was still traveling under the name Harold K.P. Addis, it wasn't long before he began using alternate names.
Addis' wife on that homeward trip was Marguerite Theresa Lynch Ovens, born October 11, 1880, in Kennington, London, and baptized at St. Philip Lambeth Parish in Surrey. Her mother was British, her father a Chilean-born naval officer. In 1901, Marguerite was living with her mother in London and working as a shorthand writer (or stenographer). Harold Addis claimed to have married at age twenty-two. That would have placed the happy occasion in about 1906, or shortly before the couple set off for America. In any case, by 1910 the Addises were living in Marion, Ohio, where Harold worked as a grocer and headed a growing household of children to whom he gave Muslim names.
In the 1910s, Harold and Marguerite Addis moved west, settling in southern California. Harold worked as a carpenter and grocer and began selling stories and articles to magazines, including Asia, Adventure, and The Overland Monthly. He later added Weird Tales and Five-Novels Monthly (with Charles Saxby) to his list of credits. Marguerite Lynch Addis, later a public librarian, tried her hand at writing, too. For Weird Tales, she wrote an article, "Sorcery Past and Present" (June 1927). She also authored a book called George the Rooster, published in 1945. Her husband's lone work for Weird Tales was the story "Doctor Grant's Experiment," which appeared in the first-anniversary issue, May/June/July 1924. He, too, wrote a book, Arrow of Flame (verse, 1946), published under the name Noureddin Addis.
The Addises lived in Long Beach, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre for many years. Marguerite Lynch Addis died on April 16, 1948, in Los Angeles or Los Angeles County. Her husband followed her to the grave on December 16, 1958.
H.A. Noureddin Addis' Story in Weird Tales
"Doctor Grant's Experiment" (May/June/July 1924)
Marguerite Lynch Addis' Article in Weird Tales
"Sorcery Past and Present" (June 1927)
Further Reading
On the Internet, there is a great deal on or by Addis and the world of which he wrote. There is comparatively little on his wife. It's an interesting story, though, involving revolution and the end of an empire. Addis and his milieu are deserving of further research. Addis is also covered briefly in Ohio Authors and Their Books, 1796-1950 (1962), edited by William Coyle. Also in that book is a listing for Hugh Addis (1909- ), another author born in Chesterhill and a resident of Sierra Madre, California. Hugh Addis wrote mystery stories. I assume Hugh Addis and Harold K.P. Addis were related.
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| An autobiographical sketch, a photograph, and the first few paragraphs of a story by Ahmed Noureddin, aka Harold K.P. Addis, from The Overland Monthly, 1916. |
Text and captions copyright 2011, 2023 Terence E. Hanley
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